Information AboutIrish People |
The Irish are a northwestern European Ethnic Group who originated in Ireland . People of Irish ethnicity outside of Ireland are common in many Western , especially Commonwealth and North America n, countries. DESCENT On the island of , were to become the most dominant; subsequent arrivals including Gallowglass Scots , Vikings , Normans , English and Lowland Scots . The names the ancient peoples of Ireland (creators of the Ceide Fields and Newgrange ) used for themselves are not known, nor are their language(s). As late as the middle centuries of the 1st Millennium AD the inhabitants of Ireland did not appear to have a collective name for themselves. Ireland itself was known by a number of different names – Banba , Fódla , Ériu by the islanders; Hibernia to the Romans ; Ierne to the Greeks . Likewise, the terms for people from Ireland – all from Roman sources – in the late Roman Era were varied. They included Attacotti , Scoti , and Gael . This last word, derived from the Welsh ''gwyddell'' (meaning raiders), was eventually adopted by the Irish for themselves. However as a term it is on a par with Viking , as it describes an activity (raiding, piracy) and its proponents, not their actual ethnic affiliations. The general term Pretani was sometimes applied to all the Indigenous inhabitants of ''Britannias'' and ''Britanniae'' (i.e. of the British Isles ) by the Romans. The term ''Irish'' and ''Ireland'' is derived from the Érainn , a people who once lived in what is now central and south Munster . Possibly their proximity to overseas trade with western Britain , Gaul and Hispania led to the name of this one people to be applied to the whole island and its inhabitants. As may be perceived from the above, there was much ethnic diversity according to the historical inhabitants of Ireland. Or at the very least they perceived the situation as such. They included the Airgialla , Fir Ol NEchmacht , Delbhna , Fir Bolg , Érainn , Eóganachta , Mairtine, Conmaicne , Soghain and Ulaid . However, as the earliest records demonstrate, people across the British Isles shared a similar language and culture. In most cases these divisions may have been more apparent than real. Doubtless in many cases the divisions were of a purely dynastic or political dynamic. The shared language and culture of these peoples is one that can be placed among the Celt s and other European peoples. Recent Y-chromosome (male descent) DNA studies have shown that a very large majority of Irish men have Y-chromosomes genetically similar to those of other Europe ans. These Y-chromosomes are putative European Paleolithic Y-chromosomes, and occur all over Europe (about 80% of European men are now thought to have Y-chromosomes derived from the paleolithic inhabitants of Europe), however they occur in particularly high concentrations in men from Ireland, certain parts of Wales and the Basque Country , and occur at relatively low concentrations in Eastern Europe . This may indicate that Neolithic and subsequent migrations did not have a large biological impact on Western Europe an people. Y-chromosome analysis also seems to indicate that the Vikings that settled in Dublin came from Norway rather than Denmark . Mitochondrial DNA , or female descent shows part of their maternal ancestors to be of broad North European origin. One legend states that the Irish were descended from " King Melesius ", one of the ''Celtiberii''. The character is almost certainly a mere personification of a supposed migration by Celts from Hispania to Ireland, but it is supported by the fact that the Celtiberian Language is more closely related to Insular Celtic than to any other Celtic language. The Vikings were mainly Danes and Norwegians and despite their notorious reputation in Irish History , did not settle in particularly large numbers nor did they significantly alter the Irish polity. The arrival of the Normans brought Welsh , Flemish , Normans, Anglo-Saxons and Bretons , most of whom became Assimilate d into Irish Culture and polity by the 15th Century . The late Medieval era saw Scots Gallowglass families of mixed Gaelic-Norse -Pict descent settle, mainly in the north; due to similarities of language and culture they too were assimilated. The Plantations Of Ireland and in particular the Plantation Of Ulster in the 17th Century introduced great numbers of Scots, English as well as French Huguenot s as colonists. Despite these divergent backgrounds most of their descendants consider themselves Irish – even where they are aware of such ancestry – mainly due to their lengthy presence in Ireland. Samuel Thompson, the Bard of Carngranny, expressed the position of eighteenth century loyalist Irish people of Scottish descent in the following verse: - "I love my native land, no doubt, Attach'd to her thro' thick and thin, Yet tho' I'm Irish all without, I'm every item Scotch within.". Historically, religion, politics and ethnicity became intertwined in Ireland, with Protestants generally identifying as British and Irish and most Roman Catholics as exclusively Irish. This is less true today, although connections between Ethnicity and Religion can still be observed - especially in Northern Ireland . It is thought that the majority of the Irish population is descended from the initial settlers who arrived after the end of the last Ice Age . For the global genetic make-up of the Irish and other peoples, see also: and [https://www5.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html SURNAMES See also: Irish Name It is common for some Irish surnames to be Anglicised , meaning that they were changed to sound more English . This usually occurred with Irish immigrants arriving in the United States during the 19th Century and the early 20th Century . It is also very common for people of Gaelic origin to have surnames beginning with "O" or " Mc " (less frequently "Mac" and occasionally shortened to just "Ma" at the beginning of the name). "O" was originally Ó which in turn came from Ua (originally hUa), which means " Grandson ", or " Descendant " of a named person. For example, the descendants of High King Of Ireland Brian Boru were known as the O'Brien Clan . "Mc" and "Mac", both Irish and Scottish surname prefixes (the Irish and Highland Scots sharing a common Gaelic heritage), means " Son of"; many names also begin with this. Some common surnames that begin with O are: O Reilly, O Neill, O Brien, O Connor, O Hickey, O Leary, O Shaughnessy, O Donnell, O Powell, O Toole, O Meara, O Malley, O Hara, and O Bradaigh. Some names that begin with Mc are: McGroyn, McGuinty, McStiofain, McDonough, McDonald, McQuillan, McGuinness, McGonagle, McGonigle, McGuire and McCormack. "Fitz" is an and FitzHenry. Certain names that begin with Fitz were originally Irish, but were then Normanised through Intermarriage s and family Alliance s. For example, FitzSimmons came from MacSioman; Mac Giolla Padhraig became FitzPatrick. In the late 12th Century and 13th Century Norman , Welsh , Flemish and Breton peoples arrived in Ireland at the request of Diarmait Mac Murchada , King Of Leinster , and took over parts of the island. During the next three hundred years, they intermarried with ruling Irish Clans , adopted Irish culture and the Irish Language and as the English put it "became More Irish Than The Irish Themselves ". It should be emphasised, especially with Gaelic surnames, there may be two or more unrelated families bearing the same or similar surnames. For example, there were at least nine separate Ó Ceallaigh Sept s, all unrelated. The Mac Lochlainn, Ó Mael Sechlainn, Ó Mael Sechnaill, Ó Conchobair Mac Loughlin and Mac Diarmata Mac Loughlin familys, all distinct, are now all subsumed together as MacLoughlin. The full surname usually indicated which exact family the family was, something that has being diminished with the loss of prefixes such as Ó and mac. Furthermore, different branches of a family with the same surname sometimes used distinguishing epitats, which sometimes became surnames in their own right. The fact that many similar surnames are found in Scotland occurs for many reasons such as, use of a common language, and mass Irish immigration to Scotland in the late 19th and early to mid-20th centuries. Also Scottish surnames are noticeable in some Catholics in Ireland due to intermarriage and pre-Reformation immigration. '' Gaelic surnames:''
'' Viking surnames:''
'' Norman / Norman-French surnames:''
'' Breton surnames:''
'' Flemish surnames:''
'' Welsh surnames:''
'' Cornish surnames:''
'' Anglo-Saxon surnames:''
'' Gallowglass surnames:''
''Normanised Gaelic surnames:''
''Gaelicised Norman-era surnames:''
See 11 and 12 for further details. PERSONAL NAMES (FORENAMES) Personal names in modern Ireland are derived from traditional Gaelic names, Anglicised Gaelic names, British names and, more recently, popular American names. The recent years have seen a major decline in most Irish names for babies being born in the Republic Of Ireland . While in the past names such as Patrick, Seamus and others were almost ubiquitous in any family, today they are among the rarer names for children and the same goes for most other Irish names, although there are a few notable exceptions. Jack and Séan, both Irish derivatives of the English name John, have grown in popularity while the name Conor remains very popular, having topped the Most Popular new names for babies list many years running. Male names from across the Atlantic Ocean have seen a surge in popularity from the mid 1990s, names such as Taylor being a good example of this. There are many other Anglicised Gaelic names which remain popular, such as Ryan, Neil and others remaining on the Names List. Biblical names also form a large composition, such as Matthew, Philip and Paul. For females, the traditional Irish names are far more popular, although their spellings are not always uniform. Names such as Mary, Ann, and Eileen which were hugely common in the past have now declined, although there was always much more variety in female names than in male. Today Aoife, Aisling, Ciara, Sinead, and Orlagh are more popular as traditional Gaelic names, while foreign names such as Ella, Emma, Lisa, Rachel and Isabelle have seen a massive rise in popularity. Some older names have maintained their popularity, such as Sarah, Kate, Catherine and Louise. English names such as Victoria, Elizabeth, and Rebecca, while never hugely popular have also seen a decline in popularity, while some Irish names such as Bridget, Una and Maureen have dropped off the list altogether. There are no major regional differentiations between regions, although the name Rachel is noted to be much more popular in the province of Connacht than anywhere else. RECENT HISTORY In Northern Ireland about 53.1% of the population are Protestant (21.1% Presbyterian, 15.5% Church of Ireland, 3.6% Methodist, 6.1% Other Christian) whilst a large minority are Roman Catholic at approximately 43.8%, as of 2001. After Ireland became subdued by England in 1603 the English – under James I Of England (reigned 1603 – 1625), Lord Protector , Oliver Cromwell (term 1653 – 1658), William III Of England (reigned 1689 – 1702) and their successors – began the settling of Protestant English , and later Scottish Colonist s into Ireland, where they settled most heavily in the northern Province of Ulster . However, they did not intermarry heavily or Integrate with the native Irish like the Normans did centuries earlier. Tens of thousands of native Irish were displaced during the 17th century Plantations Of Ireland from parts of Ulster , and were replaced by English and Scottish Planters . Only in the major part of Ulster did the plantations prove long-lived; the other three provinces ( Connaught , Leinster , and Munster ) remained heavily Catholic, and eventually, the Protestant populations of those three provinces would decrease drastically as a result of the political developments in the early 20th century in Ireland . It is predominately religion, history and political differences ( Irish Nationalism versus British Unionism ) that divide the two communities, as many of the Scotch-Irish settlers are in part of Celtic origin themselves and therefore related to their Irish Catholic neighbours. Conversely, many Irish people would have at least some English ( Anglo-Norman ) or Scottish ( Gallowglass families from the Highlands) ancestry. In 1921, with the formation of the Irish Free State , six counties in the northeast remained in the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland . "Ulster-Irish" surnames tend to differ based on which community families originate from. Ulster Protestants tend to have either English or Scottish surnames while Roman Catholics tend to have Irish surnames, although this is not always the case. There are many Catholics in Northern Ireland with surnames such as Emerson, Whitson, Livingstone, Hardy, Tennyson, MacDonald, Dunbar, Groves, Legge, Scott, Gray, Page, Stewart, Rowntree, Henderson, et al; almost certainly due to intermarriage. A report commissioned by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs states that: The government of the Republic of Ireland notes that prejudice against the Irish is still found in some parts of the United Kingdom. The post-1945 Irish population has therefore been caught between these two images. On the one hand their migrant experience and cultural difference has been denied because they are a ‘white’, ‘ British Isles ’ population group. On the other anti-Irish stereotypes persist in British society and have been fuelled by anti-IRA fears over the last thirty years. IRISH DIASPORA The Irish Diaspora consists of Irish Emigrants and their descendants in Countries such as the United States , Britain , Canada , Australia , New Zealand , Argentina , South Africa and nations of the Caribbean . The Diaspora contains over 80 million people; it is believed that roughly one third of the Presidents Of The United States Of America had at least some Irish descent. There are also large Irish communities in some mainland European countries, notably in France and Germany , as well as Japan , Brazil and other South American countries. The classic image of an Irish Immigrant is led occasionally by racist and anti- Catholic stereotypes. Irish Americans number around 40 million. They are the second largest ethnic group in the U.S., after German American s. Large numbers of Irish people immigrated to Latin America in the 18th and 19th centuries. Their descendents include Che Guevara , Vicente Fox and Bernardo O'Higgins . NOTABLE IRISH PEOPLE (SELECTION) See List Of Irish People for a more complete listing, including notable people with Irish heritage.
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